How We Can All Help In The Fight Against Racism In The UK And Beyond

On Monday May 25th 2020, George Floyd died in Minneapolis after police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes while he lay handcuffed on the floor. Floyd, 46, did not resist his arrest, he was unarmed. He repeatedly called out: "I can't breathe" - but like so many Black people before him, his pleas fell on deaf ears.

And we mustn't forget, the UK is far from immune, with a long list of deaths at the hand of the police, too - from Dalian Atkinson to Mark Duggan to Sheku Bayoh.

For reading, start with Why I'm No Longer Talking To White People About Race, Renni Eddo-Lodge's eye-opening book about structural racism and feminism.

The best-selling book exposes some uncomfortable truths, and people are even calling for it - along with The Good Immigrant by Nikesh Shukla, a searing collection of essays by BAME voices - to be added to the UK's GCSE curriculum.

Follow up with Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins; White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin Diangelo; Me and White Supremacy by Layla F Saad; and Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, which are all good starting points for learning about insidious racism in relation to gender and white privilege.

There's 1619, a six-part podcast by the New York Times that tells the story of a ship carrying enslaved Africans to the English colony of Virginia. Released last year to mark 400 years since the beginning of slavery in America, the podcast examines the "long shadow" of that fateful journey.

Afterwards, move on to About Race by Eddo-Lodge, which sees the author interview key voices from the anti-racism movement; followed by the BBC's Black Lives Matter: The Story of a Slogan on the history of the movement.

Also worth a listen is The Diversity Gap by Bethany Wilkinson, which focuses on diversity and its place in society; and Pod for the Cause, hosted by The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights, which focuses on fighting hate, bias and other human rights challenges.

When They See Us (2019) was a major talking point when it landed on Netflix last year. Directed by Ava DuVernay, the four-part drama tells the harrowing true story of the 'Central Park Five' - five teens from Harlem who were falsely accused of a brutal rape of a 28-year-old jogger in Central Park in 1989.

Dear White People (2017) is Justin Simien's critically-acclaimed comedy-drama that follows a group of black college students studying at an Ivy League college in America. Available on Netflix, the drama tackles modern race relations in the States through the lives of the characters.

Another Ava DuVernay film, 13th (2016) is the director's Oscar-nominated film about race and mass incarceration in the United States. The thought-provoking watch - titled after the Thirteenth Amendment - argues that since its abolishment, slavery has been reincarnated as what is now the mass incarceration of people of colour in the country.

I Am Not Your Negro (2016) is a documentary based on James Baldwin's unfinished manuscript, Remember This House. Narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, the Oscar and BAFTA-nominated film explores the history of racism in the US as told through Baldwin's collection of notes and letters from the mid-1970s.

Following George Floyd's death, writer Mireille Cassandra Harper tweeted: "This is an emotional and traumatic time for the community; and you checking in means more than you can imagine. Ask how you can provide support".

There are tonnes currently circulating that you can support, including this push for Valerie's Law, which is asking for "specialist training mandatory for all police and other government agencies that support black women and girls affected by domestic abuse", given that current police practices fail to support women of African and Caribbean heritage.

Another petition you can lend your voice to is this one, calling for increased funding so that the NHS can provide diverse prosthetics for women after cancer surgery, ensuring Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities have a colour range that is right for them.

And this petition is an important one, too, calling for lessons in secondary schools to be more inclusive of BAME history.

If you want proof that petitions work (alongside other forms of activism), the Justice for George Floyd Change.org petition reached almost 20 million signatures last year and is the biggest US petition on the site, ever. It called on Mayor Jacob Frey and DA Mike Freeman to have all the police officers involved in the incident with George Floyd charged, something which has thankfully now happened.

There's a whole load more new petitions you can sign here, too, if you're interested.

The Minnesota Freedom Fund is a non-profit in the US providing vital aid for protesters in Floyd's state who have been arrested, so that they can pay their bail. The organisation behind it is urging the Governor of Minnesota to defund the police and completely reform its bail system.

Black Visions Collective is one such charity to consider - a black, trans and queer-led organisation based in Minnesota, which is "dedicated to Black liberation and to collective liberation".

You can also donate a sum of money to be split amongst a selection of 37 bail funds via the ActBlue website. These include Philadelphia Bail Fund, Chicago Community Bond Fund, Nashville Community Bail Fund, New Orleans Safety and Freedom Fund, and Kansas City Community Bail Fund, to name a few.

Plus, The Bail Project is another nonprofit organisation that pays bail for people in need across the America, with the mantra: "Freedom should be free".

Show Racism The Red Card is just one of the many worthy causes you could donate to if you wish to help a UK charity. It focuses on educating kids and adults about racism using workshops, training programmes and multimedia packages.

The Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust is another great platform working "to transform lives [and] end discrimination" in honour of Black teenager Stephen Lawrence, who was killed during a racially motivated attack in southeast London back in 1993.

You can also send money to Runnymede Trust - the UK's leading independent race equality think tank.

You can donate to the Black Lives Matter movement and help their global efforts here. Working across the US, UK and Canada, its mission is to "eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes".